In recent years "the opportunities presented by AI" has been a major topic of discussion, no matter the industry. What once upon time took hours or days, has become accessible from a few clicks on our fingers tips. Our fingertips picking from the greatest of minds. Yet what was once handled with the care of a human touch (and a reasoning we're only capable off) has been reduced to 0s and 1s.
Since generative AI went mainstream in 2023, there has been a keen focus on it's confluence with the arts industry. While some have deemed these models a revolutionary tool for creators, others see them as just great plagiarisers who'll render numerous roles in the arts industry obsolete.
In 2023 the SAG members of the US actors’ union, SAG-AFTRA (the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) went on strike for 118 days with protections over AI being a major sticking point of their mass action. The Drake vs. Kendrick Lamar beef in 2024 also brought AI to the fore after Drake used a model to mimic Tupac's voice and Tupac's estate threatened to sue.
In recent times AI has also become increasingly embraced by the Zimbabwean arts industry. In 2024 Carl Joshua Ncube created the first ever Zimbabwean AI music video for Mafriq's "Matombo" - a song on Take Fizzo's Chamhembe Zvekare - and this year Jusa Dementor not only created an AI video for Winky D's "Fake Love" - which has raked up over a million views - but also did one for ExQ's "Diwawo" - which was shared widely on social media.
Music fans and fellow creatives have had a widely positive reaction to these products, with some seeing it as only a beginning. And these aren't the only uses of AI in the Zimbabwean arts industry but just the most notable. Generative AI has been utilised in the creation of posters, book covers, album artwork and in creating fashion designs. There has been an underlying feeling of excitement at the ease with with AI does these things but the question is can the Zimbabwean industry afford the cost?
By global and even regional comparison, Zimbabwe's arts industry is relatively small. It's continued existence has often been due to an ever growing ecosystem centred on collaboration. This is artists working with video directors, video directors working with fashion designers, fashion designers working with choreographers and so forth. So while AI may provide an easy way for creating a certain piece of content, it is an interruption to the cycle. A shifter of the balance that has kept an industry going through the most dire of recessions.
So is the point that AI is bad for us? Well not really, they're certainly emerging artists who could create visuals they otherwise wouldn't afford. Yet on another end limited resources have often been a push factor for innovation. The singer with a limited budget would ask a film student if they could work with it, short films could be recorded on smartphones and those who were just beginning their careers (and still with a lot to learn) would get all these lower end jobs. A developmental system of sorts.
The Zimbabwean arts industry is small and the cake available for sharing between creators is even smaller. So if the leading names in our arts industry keep replacing the human element in creation, this may be detrimental to our arts ecosystem. Some food for thought.
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